Implanted microchips record a person’s life, and upon death a cutter takes the footage and edits a movie for rememory services, this world’s version of funerals. There’s an organization that opposes this though, and target expert cutter Alan Hakman (Williams) as he receives high-profile footage.

I loved the concept of The Final Cut. Having a service where you watch a film of someone’s life from their perspective, albeit without their preconceptions, is a fascinating one and it made me think about what a rememory service for me would be like. Of course, I had to suspend my disbelief quite a bit because I can’t imagine how arduous a task it would be to go through all this footage and edit a two hour length movie out of sometimes 80+ years.

Although this premise is interesting I found the execution somewhat lacking and muddled. There were a few plot threads going on – Alan was struggling with his own memories and found it difficult to have a life of his own when he witnessed so much of other people’s, the footage he was editing could have clues to child abuse and subsequently bring down the main corporation, and the organization was trying to hunt Alan for this footage. There were other little hints at the way this technology had caused a shift in society as well, but with its short runtime the film never felt like it had the room to develop these stories in the way they needed, and as such it feels like there are a lot of good ideas but the end result is ultimately unsatisfying.

It’s a shame because there’s definitely a good premise here, it just needed streamlining. This is one film that I’d be glad to see a remake of because there’s definitely a good story in there.